Nora the L'cie
by Luigi Lover
Summary: Nora Estheim joins the group after almost dying in the purge accident, being found by the newly branded L'cie, she sets out with Hope and his friends, but after awhile, things start to get out of hand, can Nora cope with being a L'cie herself? Will her husband Bartholomew understand when they run into him on Gran Pulse? Find out what happens in this epic journey of family and love.
1. Chapter 1: Hopes' Injury

**Nora the L'Cie**

Chapter 1: Hope's injury

Hope Estheim has always been a very quiet child, but when he got thrown into the purge at 14 years old, watching his mother almost die, finding her later after he , and his friends were L'cie and healing her quickly, well, he had a lot to talk about then.

They had all been very understanding when the let Nora join the group. At Hope's request of course.

Well, after the whole fiasco with Bartholomew and the time when Hope almost lost his namesake on Gran Pulse, Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Vanille, and Fang were all glad they had agreed to Nora coming with them, she had been a big help when Hope was feeling down, at this time, the group had just finished their lunch, chicken sandwiches with crunchy Cheeto chips and lemonade that Bartholomew had given to them before they left, and were now walking through Gran Pulse, trying to get to Oerba, Vanille and Fang's home.

Nora was walking alongside Hope when he turned to her and asked "Are you sure you don't need help mom?"

"I'm sure Hope, remember, mom's are tough" She replied, saying her famous quote, "besides, if I needed your help, don't you think I would ask you, or at least ask Snow", she added, pointing to the large man in front of them. Hope looked down for a moment, then looked back up at his mother, his shining blue-green irises sparkling in the sunlight.

"I highly doubt you would ask me, you never tell me when you get hurt", he replied, "I haven't the slightest idea why though, you get mad at me for not telling you when I'm hurt, even now, if I were to tell you that I'm really just bluffing as I walk, you would probably yell at m-", he stopped walking for a moment at his mother's stare.

"Do you need to tell me something?" Nora looked at him with worry and annoyance.

"NO! Heh, why would I need to do that?" Hope lied as he kept walking. He wasn't watching his footing, so when he bumped into Snow, who had stopped to see what the commotion was about, he wasn't prepared for the fall that came after.

"OW!" Hope yelped as he landed on his back, "SNOW! You could've warned me!"

Snow looked down at Hope, to whom looked smaller than he really was, and smiled a little, "well, you should've watched where you were going kiddo!" He replied as he helped Hope back on his feet.

By this time, Lightning and the rest had all come over to see what was going on, "why are we stopping? We don't have time remember?" Fang, the newest member to the group, and quite frankly in Hope's opinion the most intimidating, said with a lot of annoyance in her voice.

"Keep your dress on, Hope just bumped into Snow that's all, no need to get aggravated", Sazh said rolling his eyes at the glare he received.

"Oh, there is something much more than that going on!" Nora snapped, as she grabbed the fleeing Hope's arm tightly, "and I am going to find out!" She looked down at the struggling boy and shook him a bit to stop his wiggling.

Hope stopped for a moment or 2 and looked at his angry mother, "…heh…heh heh…" he laughed nervously as everyone stared.

"Spill it mister!" Nora said firmly, "where are you hurt?" She began feeling his arm up and down, poking his stomach, to which Hope chuckled and slapped her hand away, rubbing his neck and face, but nothing made him flinch, shriek, howl, moan, or even shudder, it wasn't until she got to his lower back that he started to show signs of agony.

"AHA!" she cried in triumph as she saw the boy yelped when she got to the back, "so that's where it is, ok how'd you get hurt there?" she asked, making sure to keep her grasp strong as he tried, and failed to get away.

Hope knew he wasn't gonna get away, so he sighed deeply, then looked at his mother with pleading eyes and said, "it was just an accident, nothing bad at all", when he saw his mother's glare deepen, he knew he couldn't keep it a secret anymore, "I was climbing a tree when a Cieth saw me and knocked me down, I was going to tell you, but you were having a conversation with Lightning and I know you don't like to be interrupted and-" He stopped there and looked down for a moment, "…sorry…" he said softly.

Nora looked at him with a little les anger, she did absolutely loath being interrupted, so she took a deep breath and said gently, "you have to tell me these things before they get worse, you know that, your back could've been broken, and nobody wouldn't have known Hope", she then turned to Lightning and said, "do you think we could stop for a minute?"

Lightning looked at her, then back at Hope, who was trying to hide in his bandanna, then back at Nora again, "…sure, but only for a little bit, then we HAVE to go!" She stated firmly.

Vanille ran over to Nora and Hope and said, do you want me to help?"

"That would be useful, thank you Vanille", Nora replied pulling Hope's jacket and tee-shirt off and laying him down on her lap.


	2. Chapter 2: Mission Vanille

**Chapter 2: Mission Vanille**

After the whole fiasco with Hope's back, the L'cie, and Nora, went on their way, Hope being carried by Snow. As they walked farther and farther the sun started to set and it started to rain, hard.

"Uh-oh, uh Fang, can we stop now, you know how dangerous it is in the dark don't you, and I'll bet it's not any better in the rain." Vanille said quietly.

"I'm not sure I want to find out, especially with shaky over here in my arms", Snow added looking down at the now shaking Hope, who happened to stop for a minute to glare at him. "Why are you shaking anyway, it's just a little storm?"

"…I…I…" Hope stammered looking at his mother for help, "I…um…" he said.

"He's afraid of lightning" Nora finished taking a hold of Hope and keeping him close to her heart, "he always has been, ever since he was 2 years old".

"Don't worry kiddo, Lightning won't hurt you", Snow said, chuckling at his own joke, he only stopped when the person Lightning actually hit him, "Ouch! I think I'm getting afraid of it too."

"Stopping right now would be a good idea…", said Nora, "I wish my Bartholomew would appear right now, I'd probably be in his safe arms, Hope right next to me, and he would be telling us that it's okay, and that we're safe as long as he's here. Oh Bartholomew …where are you…?" Nora looked around her only to see that now everyone was staring at her strangely, even Hope, who knew how safe it was to be in his fathers' arms.

"…Alright we can stop for the night, but if you think I'm sleeping in the rain, you've got another thing coming", Fang shouted as she grew more irritated with every step, for unlike all the others, she and Nora had open toed shoes, and she doesn't like to get tem muddy.

"Look!" Sazh yelled over the rain, "there's a cave over there, we can sleep there tonight! Come on guys, there's no time to waste…literally".

They all rushed to the cave and set up camp, once they finished, Vanille went to go look for more fire wood while the rest of them sat around the campfire.

"HELP ME! HELP! HOPE!" Vanille screamed an hour later.

"VANILLE!" Hope screamed back, getting up he started to go after her, but was stopped by Snow and everyone else, "What are you guys DOING! We have to go after her, now!" He yelled at them all.

Just then Nora stepped up and pushed him down, not harshly, but just enough to knock him down, "you are staying here mister!" She snapped at him, "you're back has yet to heal fully, and I'll be darned if my little man is going out there like that, don't worry, Sazh will stay with you, and we'll bring Vanille back, I promise".

Sazh looked at her, about to reject when he caught her glare and thought better of it, Hope however wouldn't give this fight up, "NO! I'm not letting Vanille be in trouble and me not save her as well, I want to help, and besides, she called for me, so I'm going, you can stay here though, I would be open to that," he argued standing up again.

"No you're NOT!" Nora snapped getting closer, "you'll stay right here, or else" she then grabbed his boomerang, "or else I'll take your boomerang for a week!"

"HEY! That's not fair, I need that to fight…" Hope grumbled sadly. He then looked behind him in the direction Vanilles' scared voice had come from, looked back at his mother, and sat down in the dirt with nothing more than a little dust cloud, and a plop.

"Good!" Nora said triumphantly, giving him the boomerang and turning back to the others, "alright let's go! Oh, Sazh", she added turning toward him as he walked to the defeated Hope who sat pouting on the floor, "take care of him please, don't let him leave".

Sazh nodded, then tried to comfort the miserable looking boy who was now glaring at a pebble, Nora then went back to Hope, cupped his chin in her hand, and had him look up at her, "I know it's hard to let other people go, but I'm not gonna lose you to whatever's out there, if something ever happened to you especially, I don't know what I'd do, do you understand?" She said comfortingly.

Hope looked up at her for a moment, looked down and smiled a little, "…ok…but you'd better come back before an hour passes, or I'm coming after you no matter what you say, alright?" Nora nodded, knowing she couldn't talk him out of that one and sure that she would come back before then, she kissed him on the head, tickled his tummy, and then she, Lightning, Fang, and Snow went to look for Vanille.


	3. Chapter 3: The Fal Cie

**Chapter 3: The Fal Cie**

Nora, Snow, Lightning, and Fang ran up and down the cave path, through any king of obstacle or any enemy they found, they didn't stop for a break. Soon they came to where Vanille had screamed and Nora was shocked at what she saw. There, in front of all 4 of them, sat the legendary Fal Cie Titan.

"Holy crap!" Nora exclaimed.

"I hope that's not what I think it is…" Snow added despairingly.

"Unfortunately…it is…AND IT HAS VANILLE!" shrieked Fang, and she was correct, there lay Vanille, unconscious and completely covered in muck. Suddenly Lightning turned to them all and put her figure to her mouth.

"Shut up! You want him to hear you!" But it was too late, Titan had seen them come up, as he put Vanille down, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "WEAKLINGS!" and proceeded to stomp after them.

"Oh great! NOW what do we do?" Asked Snow.

"Now…we RUN!" Yelled Nora. They all booked it toward Vanille, since Titan was so big, they easily maneuvered through his huge legs, Snow grabbed Vanille, and maneuvered back to the front of him.

"Is she okay?" Nora asked, stopping for a minute behind a rock, just then Titan appeared and picked her up, "AHHH! HELP ME!" Nora cried a she was slowly brought up to his face.

Titan knew what to do, he lifted his hand to her and hot electric chains at her, they wrapped around her body like snakes, each one shocking her until she was weak, he then put his humongous figure on her heart and she felt a burning like sensation happen to the right side of her right ankle. That's when she passed out…

…_Nora knew she wasn't awake yet, but she saw visions of this giant creature in her mind looming over her world, suddenly…a flash… now what looked like the arms of that creature wrapped around Cocoon as if it were a stuffed animal, …another flash… Hope? …he was…screaming… yes screaming…in pain? Nora couldn't tell…all she knew was that he was screaming… " hey…is that…is that a light…?"_

"Mom? Mom…MOM!" Hope's voice came loud and clear, she felt his fingures wrapped around her shoulders, he was shaking her awake, "Mom! Please wake up…" he cried, tears falling from his eyes.

"Hope…" Nora said quietly

"MOM!" Hope replied, he clamped his arms around her now, hugging her a little too tightly. She chuckled

"Hope…heh, you're gonna squish me honey…I'm fine…it's okay" She sat up with him clinging on to her, pushing him off of her she wiped his tears away, cooing him as she did so.

"NORA! You're up!" Snow ran to her and plopped himself right next to Hope, smiling happily he swiped some of the dirt off her sleeve, "are you okay? HEY GUYS, NORA'S UP!" Suddenly everyone, even Vanille, came next to her, asking a million questions per second, she could barely keep up.

"Hold on everyone!" she stated, quieting them down, "I'm alright, the only thing that aches strangely enough, is my ankle". There was a deep silence, everyone immediately went from happy and relieved to awkward and sad, "what's wrong?" Nora asked inquisitively, "Is there something on my face?"

Hope spoke up, "Um…look at your ankle…" he said backing up a little. When Nora looked, she almost fainted at what she saw.

…There, right where she felt the most pain, was a L'cie mark…


	4. Chapter 4: Nora's Decision

**Chapter 4: Nora's Decision**

Nora didn't know what was worse, having a L'cie mark on her right ankle, or thinking about how her husband would react to a thing like this, "So…I'm…a-a-a…" She couldn't say it, she WOULDN'T say it, it was just too horrible, she then saw everything fade, she started to get dizzy and for a moment…everything went black…

"MOM! Please, stay with us! Mom? MOM!" She heard Hope, she felt Hope, but she couldn't see Hope…she lost hope…in herself, in her husband…in her son…she couldn't bear the thought of being a L'cie, "MOM DON'T LEAVE ME! …don't abandon me…p-please…", Nora snapped back to reality in a half-a-second.

"I would NEVER abandon you!" She yelled at Hope, "Why would you even SUGGEST a thing like that?" She couldn't believe it; her own son thought she, Nora Estheim, would abandon him like that just because of a mark.

"You were muttering things mom…you said you'd lost hope in me…I-It sounded like you would…" He trailed off, she knew what he was going to say, it surprised her to know, though, that what she was thinking…had somehow reached her mouth and come out without her knowledge, maybe that was just L'cie stuff.

Nora looked around her at the other L'cie, they were all waiting for her to say something, anything, that would tell them what he decided to do, "…Well…I guess I'll just…" she thought for a moment, "I'll just have to find out my focus and stick with all of you."

She saw them all relax, even Fang, who didn't seem to how an interest in anyone but Vanille and her husband, relaxed a little to hear her decision was to stay with them. Hope jumped on his mother and squeezed her until she turned red in the face, pushed off and said with a smile, "I'm glad you decided to stay, and dad would be too, I just know it."

Somehow Nora didn't share his opinion, but didn't say anything. A couple hours later, after her ankle stopped throbbing, Nora found out just how long she had slept for when she saw that the rain had stopped and it was morning already, "more in the afternoon really", Snow had not-so-comfortingly said. He smiled the same Snow smile that was warm and fuzzy and just made you wanna hug him, "but don't worry, we've got it all taken care of, so don't over exert yourself, alright?"

She smiled back at him and nodded. She walked over to the mouth of the cave they were in and saw…Smoke? Wait! Was that a plane?! It's crashing!

**BOOOOOOM!**

"What was THAT!?" Fang yelled after the shock had worn off.

Nora didn't answer, she didn't believe it, and she couldn't believe it, the ship that had just crashed…was the Calvary that Bartholomew had sought refuge on when they had paid him a visit in Palupolum!

"BARTHOLOMEW!" She shrieked at the top of her lunges, Hope was alerted by this and ran in front of her wearing a worried expression on his face.

"What d-did you s-s-say?" He questioned quietly.

"That's the airship that your father was on, it just CRASHED!" It finally hit her, why was she just standing there!? She ran out of the cave, Hope and the others following close behind until they finally reached the crash site, and there…laying right in the middle of all the mess…was the bloody body of Bartholomew Estheim…


	5. Chapter 5: Bartholomew

**Bartholomew's POV:**

A couple hours later...

"Mph... hm?" Bartholomew Estheim woke up, looking around he seemed to be in a cave of sorts, or at least, that's what he assumed... He could be wrong...

"H-hello? Is there anyone around?" he called being startled by the echo.

"Dad?" he heard a familiar voice call, "DAD!" the voice was close now, looking around Bartholomew couldn't see anything, at least, not until he got the wind knocked out of him by an unknown force.

"Ow! What the he-!" he stopped himself, looking down he saw a small boy with white hair that stuck out in the back, sporting an orange jacket, and an aquamarine bandanna, "H-Hope?" he stuttered touching the boy's head, "Hope is that you?"

Hope looked up with tearful eyes, "dad!"

"Hope!" Bartholomew hugged his son, feeling the tears start to sting in his eyes as well, "Hope..." Holding him for a few minutes longer, the two finally let go of each other, they were too happy to talk however, so they instead, looked happily at one another. Suddenly, Bartholomew realized something, "Hope, where's your mother and your friends? Last time I saw all of you she was there?"

"Oh, everybody except for mom is over there", Hope said before pointing to the crowd of people sitting next to the fire, "I asked them to let us have a moment alone, that way you're not overwhelmed"

Bartholomew smiled, then frowned again, "but where's your mother? Is she okay?" He asked, looking at the boy.

Hope looked at his dad for just a moment, then his face fell, "s-she's right behind you..." he replied softly, "she and Vanille were the ones that healed you"

"Vanille?" The man inquired, "who's that? I don't believe I've met Vanille yet, what is this person like?"

Hope smiled and blushed a little, "she's a girl, and she's really sweet, and funny, bubbly to, and she makes the best fish and-!" Hope stopped when he saw the look on the older man's face.

Bartholomew, being one who usually controlled his emotions, could not control his cheek, placing a big grin on his face he scooted closer to Hope, "oh ho ho! Now I really want to meet her!" He teased.

"Oh be quiet!" Hope blushed even harder now, "you'll meet her soon enough!" he said glaring at his now smirking father.

Bartholomew laughed, "I'll bet she's pretty to, huh Hope?"

Blushing even harder now Hope elbowed his father's arm, "s-shut up!" he said smiling, "go talk to mom would ya?"

Laughing even harder now, Bartholomew rubbed his arm, "heh, alright then, but behave! I still want to meet this girl _before_ things get to serious."

"Get out of here would ya?" exasperated by what his father implied, Hope's face turned so red, you would have mistaken it for a cherry.

Chuckling Bartholomew staggeringly got up, he could feel the pain in his legs go up into his body as he moved them, but although he was as slow as a slug, he managed to find Nora, and walk towards her, but he had to sit down when he reached her, not the she minded of coarse, if he was sitting,she could hide the newest "tattoo" as Snow had called it, on her ankle, "hi my penguin husband!" she teased.

"Hello my chameleon wife" he sneered back, "answer me this, how is it you can wear the brightest colors in a dark cave but still manage to avoid my sight?"

"I guess I'm just good that way" she chuckled, "how is it, a man of your size and weight could get the wind nearly knocked out of him by a small 14 year old boy?"

"I guess I'm just bad that way" he replied sarcastically. Both of them laughed, then hugged each other gently, "I see Hope's found a new friend" Bartholomew said, letting go of his wife, "should I be worried?"

Nora laughed, "no, Vanille's a good girl, she wouldn't hurt Hope."

"I'm holding you to that you realize" the man smirked.

"I figured that" She replied. They were quiet for a few moments, then Nora decided now would be as great a time as any to tell Bartholomew about her brand, "honey? I have to-to show you something..."

"Hm?" Bartholomew looked at Nora with raised eyebrows, "what's wrong?"

Looking down, Nora shifted her feet a moment

"Nora? You're scaring me." the man said, "what's wrong? Come on, you know you can tell me anything."

_"Anything huh?"_ Nora thought to herself, _"if only you knew what that word really meant..."_

"Earth to Nora, you're spacing out, the father ship would like you home please."

Snapping out of her thoughts, Nora looked at her husband again and sighed, "you remember the day we got married, what the priest said before we we said, "I do"?"

"Or course I do, "to be together forever, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live", who could forget?" Bartholomew stated.

"Well, I'm kinda... sick..." Nora said, "I have a mark you see..."

"Nora... What are you trying to tell me?" He was getting worried now, Nora has never acted in such a way unless it was very important, Bartholomew knew that.

Nora looked at him, and in the most serious tone she could muster, she uttered the three words that would change Bartholomew's life forever, "I-I'm a L'cie..."


End file.
